Another Way Around

Chapter One

“Susan! Where in the world did you put that box? That box with a video tape?”

“I just put it here in the attic together with these old junk boxes, albums and stuffs,” Susan replied looking irritated.

I’m getting frustrated looking for that video. That VIDEO.

Susan, our maid on the other hand is losing her patience as I pushed her to find it. She is so lazy and loves to complain. The only reason we keep her is because we owe her mother a lot who served our family for more than 15 years but now very old to work.

Going back, as I stumble on things in the attic, I found the album I made just before my high school graduation. “Wonderful days in High School”, I read.

 I know I’m in a hurry, but I can’t help but open it. On the first page, there goes our class picture in first year. There I am, slim, curly black hair, fair skin and looking so happy. A sudden thought strike me, “When was the last time I smiled like this?” As I flip the pages, another class picture comes after another. A long pause after I saw my senior year class picture. There I am, still slim, but with long black wavy hair, with a big smile and looking smart. This is the year that made great impact in my life.

On my left side, there goes Jake and on my right, Matea- my beloved best friends. I knew them since birth. Matea is a smart girl with dark brown eyes, she looks too hot and sexy for a high school student. She is so good in Math, no I mean “EXCELLENT”. She’s a cheerleader, she dances gracefully and everyone turn their heads when she walk. Well, she’s my total opposite. I’m slim, I suck on Math, I struggle in dancing and yes, no one cares if I walk down the hall or I don’t think someone will ever notice I just passed. But I never envied her; in fact she is the one who always verbalizes her envy for me. I may not be good in math, but I nailed our English class, both in literature and speech to be specific, I may not be a good dancer but I’m a great singer, people may not look upon me as I walk but when I started to play the piano, everyone can’t put their feet off of the music room. Though we are opposite, we love the way it is because we can fill each others’ weakness. She helps me in trigonometry, I write her thesis and essays. We fix each others’ mess. I love her so dearly.

And Jake, he’s tall with dark eyes and eyebrows, he has prominent muscle tone and yes, he too was popular. And yes again, I am not. He’s a basketball player and president of the Investigative Department. He made experiments, he even made the lab explode, and good thing the Student Council knew this was coming. He even made experiments on me and Matea on something that made me nauseated and passed out mucoid stools. And Matea, well, nothing happened to her. But no matter how many times he failed on his experiments, Jake is very dedicated and I don’t know where his motivation is coming from. He is gentle and caring. That’s why I adore Him so much. I never knew when it happened, I just woke up one morning saying I love you to my pillow, thinking it was him and of course he responded I love you too. Pathetic.

As I turned down the page, there goes the picture of the three of us on our Foundation Day. Our class was assigned to perform for the opening of the event.

“I’m so nervous, this school sucks! Why would they ask me to do something I never wanted to do? I mean, NEVER WANTED TO DO”, I said in frustration.

“Haha relax Gabrielle, just enjoy the show. Dancing is not about the steps but the heart you put on it as the music flows, just like when you’re playing your piano,” Matea said while hiding her laugh.

“Shut up, easy for you to say. Dancing is different. It doesn’t just require a heart as you say, but skills and talent. Well of course I was born without,” I argue.

Then Jake hold me on my shoulder, “Breathe in……Breathe out…….. Just don’t do something stupid and the audience will forget about this day, just do the steps as we practiced it.”

And that made me calm. I just have to do the steps carefully and this will come to pass. And tomorrow therefore is another day!  But it happened the other way around, I stepped on my dress, the next thing I know, I’m kissing the floor. Jake and Matea hide their laughs at the end of our performance so I tried to chase them till the end of the hall. Matea’s mom was there, Mrs. San Diego. She scolded us for running over the place chasing each other, and then insisted to take a picture of us. So there I was, frowning between those two.

Thirty two days passed and the students and teachers forgot about that stupid-sucking-dancing-kissing-the-floor incident. Yes I exactly know how many days have passed because I’m praying about this. I’m just upset about the fact that my best friends were popular because of their abilities and looks while me, because of my failure. Thank goodness, I can say I have a stable emotion and I’m confident I’ve mastered the skills of trying, failing, moving on and starting over. I repeat this every morning before I leave the house. I look in the mirror and say “Try-Fail-Move on-and Start Over… Try-Fail-Move on-and Start Over… Try-Fail-Move on-and Start Over….. Try-Fail-Move on-and Start Over……TRYHARDER-NEVERFAIL” then, I feel confident again.